Should We Expect WOW Service?

I dropped my car off at the dealership the other day for a minor repair. I didn’t know what to expect since this is my first time using them. Two hours later I got the call that it was ready to be picked up. How wonderful this was. The repair was done quickly and soon I’d “be back on the road”. I guess I couldn’t ask for more. But something happened that made me disappointed in the service. I guess I expected more after all.

The carpets weren’t vacuumed.

Should the dealership have vacuumed my carpets? Good question. I didn’t take the car in for a wash and vacuum. I took it in for a minor repair – which they did. But should they have vacuumed the carpets too?

Should We Expect WOW Service?

Question: Where do the responsibilities end for a service provider? If they provide the service as requested, should they look for other areas that need improvement too? Is this their job? And, if they find something else that is wrong, a small broken item, or something that can be easily corrected, should they fix that too?

I guess I believe the answer is YES.

To be honest, I knew the carpets were dirty and wanted to see if the dealership would vacuum the carpets. Now, don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dirty them intentionally to “set them up” to see if they’d go above and beyond to clean them. But I did notice that it wasn’t done.

Again, should they have vacuumed them?

Going Above and Beyond For The Customer

Customer service gurus, trainers, and authors always talk about going above and beyond for the customer and finding ways to create an “experience”. I too have said the same thing many times before. But are we wrong?

Is it too much to expect a business to do more than we ask of them? I say no, it isn’t.

In today’s challenging marketplace, the businesses that anticipate their customers’ needs, make it convenient to purchase, and find ways to do more than expected will create a more loyal customer base than those who don’t.

Some readers may say that a dealership has little incentive to WOW their customers because they have a built-in customer base from those who purchased cars from them and the fact that the dealer mechanics have specific training on the brands where a local mechanic may not have. This will always give them repeat business. This is true.

But others say that a local mechanic relies on word-of-mouth referrals and quality work to stay in business and therefore is more apt to do more than expected. This too is true.

So, what’s the solution here?

Would a vacuumed carpet have made me more loyal to this dealer than if they hadn’t? Should I have taken the car to my neighborhood mechanic? Would he have vacuumed the carpet? I guess time will tell.

The moral of the story is…

Always “vacuum the carpets”. It never hurts to do a little more.